One of the themes of the day is frustration with the officiating. Landon Collins and Mike Tomlin were among those upset about calls in their games and said so afterward.
The Seahawks did the same about a holding call on D.J. Fluker.
“I was pretty frustrated about this because we put ourselves in position to win,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said, via Brady Henderson of ESPN. “We hit the big play to Tyler [Lockett], and we’re in field-goal range and we’re going to run the clock down. They have no timeouts. We’re going to run the clock down, kick a field goal and win the football game and go home. So it was right there. We ran the ball 32 times on the day and they ran it 30, I think, so there was 60-something runs and it comes down to, ‘Let’s throw that flag right there.’ Unfortunately it happened. They got a great break out of that. It was a great break for them. I haven’t seen the play, but there was a lot of plays in that game that probably could have warranted a penalty thrown, and it happened on that play right then. Really, it just pissed me off knowing that was how this thing ended. It was unfortunate.”
On a second-and-13 play from the Los Angeles 35 with 3:53 remaining, Mike Davis ran for 5 yards. But Fluker, the right guard, was called for holding Ndamukong Suh. Russell Wilson threw two incompletions and the Seahawks were forced to punt. They never got closer.
“They called a penalty. It cost us the game,” Fluker said, via Curtis Crabtree of Sports Radio 950 KJR and PFT. “I don’t think it was a penalty.”
Both teams had seven penalties, but that was the biggest of the day. It was Fluker’s first holding penalty since 2016, though Sunday was only his ninth start over the past two seasons. Suh finished the day with seven tackles and a sack.
“I’d been taking him to the water all game,” Fluker said. “Me and 93 going at it all game. He got frustrated. I got frustrated. At the end of the day, we’re both competitors. I got respect for him, I’ve got a whole lot of respect for him. At the end of the day, I’ve got to do my job. I got to go block him. I got to take him. . . . Wherever he needs to go, I’m going to take him there. I ain’t scared of no one. I don’t back down for no one. At the end of the day, they got lucky.”